One
of the struggles in life is that we don’t get the opportunity to see God face
to face here on earth. We can see the abundant evidence of His handiwork in
creation. We can see the results of His intervention in history. His existence
helps us make sense out of what otherwise would be very difficult to explain. He
is the best explanation for the way things really are. There are fewer
difficulties with understanding the universe when we allow Him to be in the
equation.
There
are several places in Scripture where the statement from our text is stated. “No
one has ever seen God.” But as we read Scripture we find places where people
have seen God. Jesus Himself tells the disciples that if they have seen Him,
they have seen the Father. How do we understand these statements?
The
first important thing to realize is that false teachers from every age often
claim a greater knowledge of God than their previous religious tradition. They
claim personal encounters and direct revelation of new truths. They tell people
that they have a new way based on what God revealed to them. They are the
carriers of a new start, a new way to reach God. There is also usually the
twist about the keepers of the old tradition got things mixed up for various
reasons, so God had to resend the pure message through a new messenger, the new
prophet.
The
word for “see” in this verse is used to talk about the kind of seeing that
would take place in a theater. It is prolonged intense observation of something
that is often unusual in nature or timing. It is much more than an instagram picture
post. It involves observation and analysis. It takes seeing the object and then
spending some mental energy trying to figure out what it means to me and the
world. It is more than liking on Facebook. It involves some personal investment
of attention and time.
John’s
point is that if we love one another, others will be able to do this kind of
observing of God’s action in our lives. They will see Him working. They will
gain a knowledge of His character by watching our character. And this is what
is lacking in the lives of these false teachers. They don’t have the life of
love that marks the life of a Jesus-follower. They have lots of talk, but their
lives are empty of substance.
Unfortunately,
lack of substance isn’t something that was confined to the first century AD.
All down through history there have been those who have pulled at the fringes
of groups trying to create a following of their own. They claim to be able to
lead in a way unlike others. They boast of their superior knowledge all the
while claiming to be humble. They live unexamined lives. And they want to keep
prying eyes from looking too deeply into their past or into their motives.